Golden Monkey Gene Jack, A Fight Decided in Seconds?
Jack swung through the forest, using the massive tree branches to propel himself forward.
With the boost from his Golden Monkey Gene, he navigated this woodland like a fish in water.
While others had to trudge slowly across the ground, he zipped through the canopy with effortless speed.
This method of travel not only let Jack easily evade the wolf packs, but also allowed him to pinpoint lone Shadowwind Wolves with precision.
The catch? For a mere Common Gene Soldier like him, even a lone Shadowwind Wolf was a tough nut to crack.
But Jack was quick on his feet, mentally speaking.
Once he realized how much he struggled against even isolated wolves, he found a clever workaround and started hunting for Shadowwind Wolves that were both alone and already wounded.
As luck would have it, such wolves did exist within the instance.
Partly because of infighting among their own kind.
And partly due to skirmishes with humans.
Sometimes, a Shadowwind Wolf would realize it was outmatched and flee, wounded.
So after a day or so of skulking around, Jack actually managed to score a few successful kills.
"At this rate, I'll hit the passing mark in no time."
Jack grinned to himself as he moved.
As a Common Gene Soldier, his ambitions were modest. All he wanted was to kill ten Shadowwind Wolves and clear the minimum bar.
For an ordinary gene soldier, even just hitting the passing mark would be a seriously impressive result.
In the future, even if he couldn't get into a top-tier Gene University, a slightly less prestigious one would still be within reach.
Or he could use it as a credential to join a decent faction, which wouldn't be bad either.
At that thought, Jack's smile widened.
And then, as if his luck had finally turned, Jack spotted something else.
After rounding a giant tree, he found himself staring at a pile of Shadowwind Wolf corpses!
"What the—?"
Jack froze for a second, then his face lit up with pure, unadulterated glee.
The Gene Academy's trial scoring wasn't exactly strict.
Put simply, the requirement was to 'slay ten Shadowwind Wolves,' but in reality, all you needed to do was bring back ten Shadowwind Wolf corpses.
Whether or not you personally killed them didn't really matter all that much.
Of course, you couldn't go overboard.
It's not like a regular nobody could just waltz in and kill ten Shadowwind Wolves, right?
That would definitely trigger an investigation from the academy.
But Jack had no such worries. With his strength, the possibility of him killing ten Shadowwind Wolves was entirely plausible.
Mind racing, Jack quickly approached the wolf corpses, intending to stuff them into his spatial backpack.
Though a flicker of curiosity crossed his mind—who would be dumb enough to just abandon these wolf carcasses?
These corpses weren't just grades; they were cold, hard cash. Real money.
A single Shadowwind Wolf corpse could easily sell for several hundred credits, even up to a thousand.
And as if answering his unspoken question, just as this thought crossed his mind—
A sharp shout suddenly rang out through the woods.
"Stop right there!"
The next instant, a handsome, golden-haired boy dropped from the sky, landing right in front of him.
Jack nearly jumped out of his skin. He squinted, and his expression immediately turned into a weird grimace.
"Xalen?"
He recognized the guy instantly. It was Xalen, the infamous figure from the class next door.
'Infamous' being the key word. The negative kind.
And just then, that very infamous Xalen didn't mince words. "These Shadowwind Wolf corpses are my spoils. Hands off."
"What? They're yours?"
Jack blinked, stunned.
He'd been wondering why anyone would leave wolf corpses lying around. Guess that solved the mystery: they were claimed all along.
But another thought struck him, and confusion set in.
Wasn't Xalen basically famous for being a trash gene soldier?
These wolf corpses… were they actually his?
At that, Jack couldn't help but scoff. "Xalen, just because you say they're yours doesn't make it true. What if I said they were mine?"
"Come on, everyone knows about your gene. You think someone like you could take down this many Shadowwind Wolves?"
Up in the treetops, Athena had naturally caught wind of the argument below.
Hearing Jack's words, a strange expression crept onto her own face.
Honestly, if she hadn't seen it for herself, she wouldn't have believed Xalen could kill this many Shadowwind Wolves either.
But unfortunately for Jack, that was exactly what happened.
These wolves were, in fact, taken down by Xalen alone.
Xalen listened, then just cracked a grin.
"Sounds like you're looking down on my gene."
Hearing that, Jack let out a cold smirk and said nothing, but the silent agreement said it all.
Wasn't it obvious?
After all, Xalen's gene was basically the academy's officially recognized trash.
And while his own Golden Monkey Gene was also bottom-barrel, compared to Xalen's lizard gene? It was practically a step up.
This inevitably gave Jack a small, unconscious sense of superiority.
"Alright then, let's have a little spar."
Seeing Jack's contemptuous smirk, Xalen let out a short, dry laugh.
He wasn't some unreasonable thug. As long as people didn't cross the line, he couldn't be bothered to cause trouble.
But it turned out this Jack guy had come here just to freeload, and when that failed, he still wouldn't back off.
In that case, Xalen had no problem teaching him a lesson.
It was perfect timing, actually. He'd just absorbed some Gene Crystals and needed to stretch his muscles a bit.
Jack's eyes lit up at the challenge. "If I beat you, I'm taking all these Shadowwind Wolf carcasses with me!"
As he said this, his heart started pounding with anticipation.
Only now that he was really here did he realize the number of wolf corpses was way beyond what he'd imagined.
There had to be at least twenty of them!
If he could walk away with all those corpses? He'd be set for life! His results would skyrocket!
And all he had to do was beat a trash-tier gene soldier like Xalen?
Ha. Wasn't this a done deal?
Jack suddenly hopped back a step and pulled out a huge handful of throwing knives from his spatial backpack.
Even though he looked down on Xalen, he wasn't about to be completely careless.
He opened with his signature move.
With a flick of both wrists, a storm of blades flashed cold as they shot straight for Xalen.
Since he only had the basic Golden Monkey Gene, Jack had a single talent ability: heightened agility.
But Jack's own hand-to-hand combat skills weren't shabby, and he'd even picked up some expert marksmanship with thrown weapons.
Now, with that unleashed, the volley of knives rained down on Xalen like a furious storm.
This move genuinely caught Xalen off guard. His eyebrows shot up in mild surprise.
Up in the tree, Athena was also watching with a flicker of curiosity.
Then her expression shifted.
Every single one of those knives… hit Xalen dead-on, sticking into his body.
Jack's face lit up with triumph for a split second—then he froze, utterly dumbfounded.
Xalen just lowered his arms, expression totally calm.
Then, with a completely straight face, he plucked the knives off his body one by one.
The tips were still stained with blood, yet the wounds on Xalen's body were already rapidly closing up.
"Throwing weapons, huh? I can do that too."
Xalen glanced down at one of the knives in his hand, then suddenly hurled it back at Jack with terrifying force.
Thwack.
Jack didn't even have time to react. The blade punched into his shoulder, and blood started flowing freely.
His entire body shuddered, and he stumbled backward three steps.
In that single instant, pure horror flashed through Jack's eyes.
A split second ago, Xalen had been over twenty meters away.
But in the next blink, the guy was already right in front of him.
Jack's pupils contracted sharply as a fist rapidly expanded in his vision!
BAM!
Jack slammed into a tree trunk and coughed up a mouthful of blood.
"I surrender!"
Before Xalen could throw another punch, Jack, blood still trickling from his mouth, suddenly snapped back to his senses and screamed.
Xalen's fist paused mid-swing.
Up in the tree, Athena's expression turned utterly baffled.
The fight was already over?
It was over, just like that?!